Artists and QM graduates explore the possibilities and problems of using AI to make art
Taking over the new BLOC film and media research facility in Arts One, the AI Encounters project is a practical experiment with the fast-changing tools reshaping the creative sector.
The Assistant Producers scheme run by the Centre for Creative Collaboration brings together students and graduates from across Queen Mary to work on creative projects with artists and researchers. The impact on generative AI tools on artists and creatives has been hotly debated over the last 6 months, so it felt like the right topic to explore now and investigate how these tools might change how we think about creating culture.
In collaboration with Wasafiri Magazine, the Centre for Digital Music and AiR Supply at Queen Mary, three exciting artists were recruited to take part in the project. Supported by the assistant producers, they each created an installation in one of the spaces in BLOC cinema, which has state of the art projection and sound facilities.
Writer Lishani Ramanayake created an immersive investigation called ‘Who is Lasantha?’ about the assassination of Sri Lankan journalist and activist Lasantha Wickrematunge in 2009. By asking ChatGBT and other AI tools ‘Who is Lasantha?’ she questioned where information is collected and exposed how AI is neutralising and de-politicising history and culture online.
Poet Hasti’s piece ‘Ghost Works’ built an interaction poetry machine, where each audience member could request a poem to be generated by AI and have it printed for them by a living writer, Hasti, who was sat at a desk typing away creating their own poetry which was given out alongside the AI generated ones. Placing the poems side by side opened up questions of authorship and left the audience to decide how they felt about pressing a button to make content in front of a working writer.
Musician Pedro Pereira Sarmento, who recently completed a PhD at the Centre of Digital Music, built a sonic exhibition called ‘A Vague Sense of Belongling’ which invited audiences to experience AI generated music using tools he had developed in his own research. From soaring classical phrases to thundering heavy metal, the exhibition asked audiences to consider what it feels like to not know whether music has been created by a human or by AI.
After the artists' presentations, a panel discussion was led by writer and performer Hannah Silva, who is a Leverhulme Fellow at Queen Mary and recently released a new book, My Child, The Algorithm. The audience gathered in BLOC’s screening room to share their thoughts on how AI might change the way culture is created, and what the impacts on artists might look like.
It was a brilliant event, and the Assistant Producers who made it happen behind the scenes were happy with how their collaboration with the artists developed, and the skills and knowledge they all built as creative producers.
The Assistant Producer team were: David Oluwatobi Ajibade, Ella Natasha Bradwell, Eva Dunne, George Boulton, Malia Zaman, Pianka Maria Parna, Umar Gendoo, Yang Bai (Mia) and Zoe Scholes.